Royal tours of Canada

Canadian royal tours have been taking place since 1786, and continue into the 21st century, either as an official tour, a working tour, a vacation, or a period of military service by a member of the Canadian Royal Family. Originally, official tours were events predominantly for Canadians to see and possibly meet members of their Royal Family, with the associated patriotic pomp and spectacle. However, nearing the end of the 20th century, such occasions took on the added dimension of a theme; for instance, the 2005 tour of Saskatchewan and Alberta by Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, was deemed to be a vehicle for the Queen and Canadians to honour "The Spirit of Nation Builders." The couple's tour in 2010 was themed "Honouring the Canadian Record of Service— Past, Present and Future." Official royal tours have always been vested with civic importance, providing a regionalised country with a common thread of loyalty.

Also, junior members of the Royal Family began to undertake unofficial "working" tours of Canada as well; in this method, royal figures are invited by provinces, municipalities, and other organizations to events which the latter fund without assistance from the federal government. The Queen's children, The Prince of Wales, The Princess Royal, The Duke of York and The Earl of Wessex, as well as the Queen's cousin, Prince Michael of Kent, have all made several small tours in this fashion.

The first royal figure to be present in Canada was the future King William IV, who arrived on the country's east coast in 1786. However, while his niece, Queen Victoria, never came to Canada, her son, the future King Edward VII, initiated the traditional format of the Canadian royal tour: partaking in official engagements, meeting politicians and the public, and reviewing troops. While invitations had been regularly made since 1858 for the reigning monarch to tour Canada, it was in 1939 that George VI became the first to actually do so. During that trip, the King's wife, Queen Elizabeth, initiated the tradition of the "royal walkabout", though her brother-in-law, the former King Edward VIII, had been frequently meeting with everyday Canadian people in 1919; as he said: "Getting off the train to stretch my legs, I would start up conversations with farmers, section hands, miners, small town editors or newly arrived immigrants from Europe."

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